Do you have a pond?

backwoods · #1 09/24/12, 08:20 PM

We have. I never hear anyone mention a pond as a prep resource, but we think of ours that way. We have it stocked with fish, great source of protein, and then there's all that water... Something to think about, that it seems many people may overlook. We had a couple of large catfish for dinner yesterday. Yum!

Awnry Abe · #2 09/24/12, 09:13 PM

After spending the last 48 hours in a hospital waiting room without showering, I returned today after the long drive home craving a shower. When I turned on the faucet, there was 0 water pressure. Not even enough to wash the stinging salty tears from my eyes. I pondered..."At least I have a pond and a Berkey if this is the big one."

Ceilismom · #3 09/24/12, 09:25 PM

Right now, I just have a big empty hole in the front yard.

Sourdough · #4 09/24/12, 09:52 PM

I dug two ponds last year.

MO_cows · #5 09/24/12, 09:53 PM

Wish we did but our land is too flat and sandy. There is a big pond/small lake on the neighboring property where no one lives so it would be used in case of emergency to get water for the stock. My mom built a pond a few years ago, stocked it with little ones here and there they caught on fishing trips, plus a few purchased fingerlings, but this year with the drought it almost went dry and the fish all died because the water remaining got too hot.

longshot38 · #6 09/24/12, 09:56 PM

i have a river behind the house and an ocean about an 1/8 of a kilometer from the house. i view each as preps given by the Lord and my granddad's choice of where to put the home sight.

dean

LisaInN.Idaho · #7 09/24/12, 11:40 PM

We have two ponds, a river and a creek. All stocked naturally.

newfieannie · #8 09/24/12, 11:56 PM

i have a stocked pond but it's 30 miles away. ~Georgia

unregistered29228 · #9 09/25/12, 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrownRanch

After spending the last 48 hours in a hospital waiting room without showering, I returned today after the long drive home craving a shower. When I turned on the faucet, there was 0 water pressure. Not even enough to wash the stinging salty tears from my eyes. I pondered..."At least I have a pond and a Berkey if this is the big one."

I'm sorry for whatever you were dealing with - 48 hours at a hospital is enough to make anyone crazy. Did your water pressure come back?

We've got a stocked pond, and that's our backup for water (with the Berkey) and food. It has a small spring that feeds it, so even in the worst drought year it didn't go dry. It was down a couple of feet, which was scary (and ugly) but the fish survived.

I've worked on our pond this year, to improve the water and fish life. I've been using a rake thing to pull out algae clumps and branches, and added some live bacteria to help eat the layer of stuff on the bottom. It's amazing how much better it looks after just a month or so. If we were rich we would invest in a pond bubbler that would add oxygen to the water, but the system we need is over $1,000.

7thswan · #10 09/25/12, 06:42 AM

Yes, we have a small pond. It has to be dug out ocassionaly because it fills in with sand/silt. It would be quite expensive to properly dig it out and berm it. It is filled by a natural spring,which this area has many of,we have atleast 4 springs,that if opened would provide water. We also have a stream on the lower land because of the many springs draining this entire area. It flows to make a Lake north of us.

ai731 · #11 09/25/12, 07:45 AM

We don't have a pond on our 6 acres, but our friendly and helpful next-door neighbour has a large one on his property nearby. I definately think of his pond as part of "our" preps, in that we could haul water from it for drinking, cooking, washing & watering the stock if we had to. I only store a small amount of water, but have a good stock of water purification tablets and I am saving up for a high-quality water filter.

I used to think of our sump well as part of our water storage "prep," until it went DRY in the drought we had this summer

lemonthyme7 · #12 09/25/12, 07:47 AM

We have a year round creek behind our house. In a really dry year it can shrink quite a bit but never goes dry and there are several deeper pools in it. It feeds into a bigger river about 3/4 mile down the road and a large swamp system which is state game lands. While we don't have many fish in our creek there are fish in the larger body of water down the road. We would definately use the creek water (filtered) in a SHTF situation. We have already used buckets of it for flushing one time when the power was off for awhile.

backwoods · #13 09/25/12, 08:04 AM

CrownRanch, hope things are going better for you!

wes917 · #14 09/25/12, 08:13 AM

I live in the city ( I know, I know) but about 350ft or so from my home is one of the great lakes, so set on water, and hopefully fish if needed. I do have small boat, and am looking into a two person fishing kayak for calm days.

Awnry Abe · #15 09/25/12, 08:22 AM

It was just a water main (mane?) break. We were only dry for a few hours. No biggie.

powerdam1953 · #16 09/25/12, 08:23 AM

We have a pond and it is our water supply. There is also a river across the street and a backwater that runs behind our property. The pond is stocked with bluegill, largemouth and catfish. It is low this year but still plenty of water. It is about 20 feet deep when full. There is also crayfish and bull frogs but I don't care much for frog legs.

Forerunner · #17 09/25/12, 08:41 AM

Whatever you do, don't register that pond or waterhole.
EPA will eventually be along to confiscate those, along with everything else you may depend on for personal survival.

badlander · #18 09/25/12, 09:01 AM

Two ponds both stocked with fish and deep enough that the recent drought dropped the water level but didn't kill off the stock.

With the price of fish at the local grocery store, I recently told DH that I needed to get a few bass in the freezer.

texican · #19 09/25/12, 09:53 AM

Drought of 97 caught me with my pants down... well went dry, and my pond got dangerously low... had to pipe water from a rapidly diminishing resource and if it (the drought) hadn't broke, I'd'a been hauling water. So, saved my dollars up and built an 8 acre lake, 34' deep. Last years drought I used about 1/5th of my capacity. That tells me I could go five years in a complete drought. Of course, the world would probably have burned down by then...

Have a gravity feed system from the lake to my water tanks...

Sarah J · #20 09/25/12, 10:43 AM

I had a pond. Loved it, fished it, teen daughter built a raft to hang out on it. About an acre or so, stocked with several varieties of fish. Ducks, geese, turtles. Last year (2011) had a total kill. Glad we didn't get around to restocking it last summer because THIS summer, there's about 3 feet across from shore to shore and maybe 6 inches deep. The drought has hit Southeast Iowa like it DIDN'T hit 20 miles north of us. ??? Weather is so strange...